Cairo (AFP) - Egypt has recovered fragments from the pyramid of Cheops said to have been stolen by Germans, including part of a stone tablet identifying the pharaoh it was named after, state media reported Wednesday.

Former antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim said in December "German researchers, helped by an Egyptian guide had taken samples of stone, as well as fragments of a tablet bearing the name of the Pharoah Cheops" in the pyramid.

The two researchers took the samples to analyse them to try to confirm a theory that the pyramid was built more than 15,000 years ago.